Chapter 1

Normally, seeing a seventeen year old girl casually walking down the street would not cause much of a stir. However, in the case of Lucy Lutzmann, often called LuLu by her peers, it was a peculiar sight to behold. Her gait was unlike others in her grade, and her stance, which pushed her hips forward and her shoulders back in a slack-like manner, surrounded her with the aura of a person who cared about truly nothing in this world.

Her demeanor was also supported by her choice of wear. A loose tank top that revealed her midriff and bellybutton, alongside a pair of baggy sweatpants that looked like they would be incredibly comfortable even for the most voluptuous of women.

She was slender and of average height, yet had a sizeable bust and rather wide hips with legs that appeared powerful enough to put dents in the sturdiest of tanks. Her face bore the look of fatigue, yet her eyes were glued to the sidewalk ahead. Her hair was styled in an unorthodox manner involving a ponytail off the left side of her head with long bangs off to the right, a contrast to her offhandedly selected attire.

In her hand was an object of interest; for someone who most certainly looked her age, its presence would seem to suggest otherwise. It was red with a simplistic design, a mere yellow star on a white background, that when spinning gave the illusion of two concentric circles. Its bearing was almost completely silent and its string woven to perfection, its appearance seemed to be un-indicative of its balance and weight.

The yoyo, given to Lucy as a present from her late grandfather, was apparently constructed from exotic materials such as tungsten, osmium, and traces of tin, many years ago by a prolific toy designer with a particular passion for the spinning objects. She treasured the gift dearly, rarely leaving home without it, and taking every opportunity to enjoy using it, it goes without saying that LuLu had a very real attachment to it.

The reason she was walking down the street in comfortable clothing is simple, she was heading to school. Today was a day of particular importance, it marked the beginning of her second semester of senior year, and was the beginning of the end for her life as a high school girl. She had already applied to the universities she deemed worthy (and within her, or rather her parents', budgets), but was honestly still unsure as to what she wanted to do. Torn between bioengineering and dentistry, she centered her courses around biology and chemistry, with a touch of math.

After undoing her yoyo and placing it in her bag, she had arrived within view of the large, perfectly symmetrical and as a result stunningly mundane building that was her school. After a brief, reflective stare at it, she heard a familiar voice coming from her right, far closer to her ear than she was prepared for.

"Hey LuLu" it whispered, startling Lucy and causing her to jump away reflexively.

Judging from the raspy tone in the female-sounding voice, Lulu quickly came to the conclusion that its source was her friend of three years, Tabitha Gonzales. She was particularly devoted to computers and videogames, having built herself a computer at the tender age of 13, which reportedly still worked, despite the many "internet glitches" that plagued the skype calls she had with her friends.

As soon as lucy noticed that she had lost her balance and would be incapable of stabilizing herself before a painful encounter between her butt and the concrete floor, she felt two hand shaped objects press against her upper back, allowing her to regain her composure.

"Good morning, LuLu, are you alright?"

The soft and genuine voice just behind her head showed compassion to her that rivaled that which her family members harbored, taking this into consideration, it can belong to no one other than LuLu's friend, also of three years, Aminah Johansen. Her little quirk was origami, the Japanese art form of paper folding. Despite being very proficient and creative with paper, she was very shy of her abilities, and often chose not to display them, even when an opportunity presented itself.

"Guys, it's seven in the morning, can we not?" Lucy asked, finally recovering.

"Oh, come on, now, we always do this! How could we not when you fall for it every time?" Tabitha giggled, to which Aminah responded with a slightly nervous 'ahaha'

"That's right, guys! We're on our final semester of high school, soon we'll be off to our new lives" Aminah changed the subject, allowing Lucy to return to her feet.

"Easy for you to say, you've already been accepted into a top tier university!" Lucy congratulated her.

"I heard that there was a big-headed scientist coming to visit the senior class to talk about some science things, any idea what that's about?" Tabitha clearly didn't care about the previous conversation topic, likely because she had yet to apply to any universities out of indecisiveness despite the rapidly approaching deadlines.

"Supposedly there's gonna be some showcase for an experimental device, it's supposed to make us smarter or something" Lucy recalled

"How would that even work?" Aminah looked up to think

"Something, something, brainwaves, blah blah blah." Tabitha dismissed the idea casually, "How are sound waves supposed to make us smarter, is he gonna play Mozart or something?"

"At least it means I don't have to go to Spanish class" Lucy quietly cheered.

Interrupting their conversation, the five minute bell rang and the girls scuttled off to their joint homeroom. When LuLu, Tabitha and Aminah at their usual desks, they noticed a group of significantly more socially capable girls chatting with a boy, who between his fingers held what appeared to be a disk. After a second glance, Lucy discovered that it was a revolver. Not the pistol, it would be of great concern if a teenager brought a gigantic revolver to school and chose to show it off to a bunch of horny teenage girls as some perverse metaphor for the size of his penis, the revolver in question was less harmful in theory but more so in practice.

The object in his hand was significantly worse than a gun. It was a "spin fiddler", essentially a small toy held between the fingertips that would spin for a few minutes when given impulse by the remaining fingers of the holder. Though its purpose was to harmlessly promote a more productive day by controlling a person's desire to fidget with whatever they could get their hands on, it had quickly evolved into a symbol of wealth and 'hip-ness' among children around 12 years of age. Many varieties existed, from simple ones that truly existed without malicious intent that spun quietly and were easy to hold for extended periods of time to oversized metallic behemoths with LED lights whose sole purpose was to lure those unfortunate enough to get caught up by the trend and post it all over social media outlets while giving the manufacturers a quick buck.

The one he held was of the obnoxious kind, it was golden and was laced with designs ranging from a skull to a motorbike wheel. In defense of the revolver, it did look rather hypnotizing as it spun, the designs were placed so that when it was spinning it would bring forth the illusion that the designs themselves were somehow not moving. LuLu remembered seeing one in the store a few days ago and recalled its price to be upwards of 100 dollars, she failed to comprehend the price difference between a 5-dollar and a 200-dollar revolver since in the end all they did was spin.

The boy in question was not the only one who had it. The school Lucy attended was so incredibly out of touch with the rest of the world - mostly because of its strict regulations regarding internet use, the large workloads, and the fact that it was quite far from any other school - that fads such as "krumping" and handheld phone charms hung about for far longer than they had any right to, pushing students further and further from what was actually popular among seniors at the time.

The country's anthem began to play, all students returned to their desks and stood up quietly with their right hands on their chest in respect. Then, almost as if it were rehearsed, the door to the room was pushed open by a girl.

She walked to the nearest empty desk, unphased by the anthem and started twirling her own fiddler in her right hand with her left hand on her chest in a lazy attempt to calm the teacher, who was visibly angered by the girl's lack of conduct.

Once the anthem had finished playing, the instructor rushed over to the girl's desk in a strut that was so hurried that anyone who had not seen his infuriated face would be forgiven for assuming that he was in dire need of a toilet. He proceeded to scold the girl thoroughly. She was clearly new to the school, or at least to the homeroom as LuLu and her friends had never seen her face before.

A few seconds later, once Lucy began to lose interest in the chastisement of a new face, she heard the new student's voice for the first time

"My name is Miranda, Miranda Van Der Waals. I refuse to be abused so!" her voice was loud and quiet at the same time, somewhat miraculously "you could have told me without such a rude and uninviting tone in your voice and I would have heard you just the same as if you had implanted a speaker into my ear!"

Soon after, the teacher returned to his desk to prepare and begin the announcements, Miranda Van Der Waals sat down at her chair, looking displeased before a swarm of kids gathered around to ask questions about her origins and the fiddler and other such small talk.

Although Lucy wasn't particularly interested in her, since her first impression already rubbed her the wrong way, she couldn't help but stare at the fiddler. She couldn't make out any of its features mid-spin, but it looked rather plain, and its bearings were loud enough to be heard by other students who began to point it out to her.

"It's not like that, I legiti-" Miranda began before she was interrupted by the teacher as he began the announcements.